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Friday, July 17, 2015

Book, Book, Podcast, Blog

The Friday roundup begins with a pretty cool offer. My hometown bookstore, Powell's, is offering signed editions of the Beer Bible for pre-order. I found this slightly amusing, since they haven't consulted me about that. But anyone who knows Powell's knows how important it is to the city and I will be happy to sign as many books as they want to sell. So if you're looking to pre-order and you don't live in town, sign up now.

While we're talking Beer Bible, let me point you to the new Facebook page for the book. I'm not sure why we do this, but we do, and I have done it. I will use it as a clearinghouse for dates on the for upcoming book tour. So go like that and follow along if you feel inspired.

Next, we have the latest Beervana Podcast available. This is the first of a two-parter that will revolve around the Oregon Brewers Festival. Even if you don't live nearby and have no plans to go, you may still find it interesting. We're using the current event as a way to chart the change in beer over time, looking at this year's list and comparing it to the one from a decade ago. Big changes, and I think they represent trends in brewing writ large.

For the average consumer, “IPA” is completely disconnected from the
historical style—it just means juicily hoppy. So when you attach it to
any other adjective (session, white, Belgian, etc.), all it does is
designate the presence of the juicily hoppy character. So yes, if Ben made a 4.8% lager made with pilsner and Vienna malt,
infused it with that juicy hoppiness, he could probably call it a helles
IPA. (The helles part would be a lot more confusing than the IPA.) But
the implicit point in his question is evident—by the time you’re making a
helles IPA, you’ve stretched that poor adjective so far it hardly has
any meaning left.